Well, what can I say? This page started off as 'Sharkman shags it up' and was intended as an opportunity for everybody out there to laugh at my cock ups, as opposed to me laughing at theirs. However it seems to have captured peoples attention, to the point where other photographers have actually been OFFERING some of their bloopers to go on this page.
This seemed like to good an opportunity to pass up so I have decided to throw open the doors to Sharkman's School of Excellence. Basically the school is open to anybody that runs their own drag racing website. If you wish to enrole in the school then simply email me your worst photo disasters (only one or two please) and a few brief details (including the URL of your website) and if I think they are bad enough I will publish them here for everybody to laugh at. Please note that the captions are supplied by Sharkman, so by submitting photo's your are exposing yourself to any sort of embarrassing caption!!!!

Well here it is the first yearbook of the school of excellence featuring the work of the finest students from the 1999 year and of course some stunning examples from the principal himself. Enjoy.

Lets start with some of Sharkmans finest :
Morale of this story - switch the camera off when you are not useing it or you finish up with a lovely picture of the bank	Ahh, a perfectly executed shot of an empty race track. Not only did I miss the car, I get bonus points for bad exposure as well
Look at this!!! - So bad that the scanner thought it was a black and white print! Now that takes some doing A few people have been (quite rightly) noticing the lack of bike coverage. Well I touched on the reasons in the Sportsman Report, but heres the other reason, I haven't learn't the art of taking decent photo's of bikes yet!	Yes Yes Yes, This one just about has it all, Its out of focus, blurred and just look at that composition. If only I'd screwed up the exposure as well. One of the best looking ProMod cars deserves a lot better than this.
And the first honours graduate is TOG from Togs Drag Racing Page
Mike Dunn a few yards from the finish, and a few yards ahead of Tog.	Tog scores highly with this one, an out of focus shot from an autofocus camera. Now that takes some doing. Good effort that man.
And in at number 2 is Andy Marrs from TSI Timers
What an effort, a beautifully panned shot of Tommi Laine, with a full bank providing a great backdrop and probably the only obstruction the whole of the pits side of the track smack in the middle. Bonus points for Light fogging on the left side of the print as well.	The Marrs man strikes again. This time Andy proves that having access to trackside doesn't guarantee good pictures. This, believe it or not, is one of the Showtime cars being fired up! This man is clearly one of the best graduates that the School of Excellence has ever had.
Ladies and Gentleman, your 3rd Graduate is Chris from :Trakbytes UK Drag Race History (site no longer exists)
Chris has very kindly entered some classics from days gone by to the school of excellence. I'm sure you'll all agree that its great to see that despite everything that has changed in our sport, the standard of photography has remained unchanged !
Is this where Tog got his inspiration from? 22 years before Mike Dunn was running too fast for Tog (see above), heres Ronnie Picardo running too fast for Chris	Dating from 1975 this shot proves that the old rules of composition still hold true today, If you can get somebodies head in the bottom of the frame somewhere and something to obstruct the main subject (whats the betting thats someone with a press pass!), you are on to a winner!
	(left) Chris describes this so well I'm not going to mess with it : "This van used to pull wheelies all the way down the strip. I carefully composed this shot in the pits with my Kodak Instamatic, and then just as I pushed the button, this picture of satorial elegance wandered into the shot." Great effort Chris and bonus points for such an eloquent description. And no, before anyone asks, thats not Sharkman!
Our first INTERNATIONAL graduate is Bob from : Northern Thunder
Bob runs the hugely entertaining Northern Thunder site from Canada, but has a burning desire to race in Australia (check the Aussie drag Babes section of his site for a possible insight as to why!) Sharkman is delighted that Bob has taken time out from his non stop work on his race car to join the School of Excellence and wishes him the very best for running in Oz.
Bob has submitted this exquisite shot of Palymra Dragway (Queensland, Australia) and scores very highly for several reasons. Firstly it was taken with a camera which cost about $9, which just goes to prove that you don't need expensive equipment to achieve professional (?) quality results. Secondly its blurred and thirdly the composition is spot on, the way the strip leads your eye into the picture and then leaves you hanging without anything else to look at is particularly pleasing. I'll leave the final word to Bob however : " The brown splotches in the foreground are either holes or flattened cow pies - can't remember which as there were quite a few of both on the top end." Sharkman wonders what the NHRA safety safari would make of that?
And heres our first Scandinavian, Christer from the superb Svensk Drag racing site
Svensk provide live updates and pictures from the Scandinavian racing series. Christer has submited a couple of entries taken with the latest digital camera technology. Unfortunately technology doesn't always do what you want it to......
The final of Pro Stock bike, as seen by a digicam which has a focusing time measured in days. (Look closely at the left of the pic, you can just see some wheelie bars)	Oh, what a classic. Nice to see trackside photographers can be a problem outside of the UK as well. Tog, have you got any family in Scandinavia?